Gators Add Pile of New Qualifiers on Day 1 of Last Chance Meet

Florida Last-Chance Meet

• February 24th-26th, 2017
• Last-chance qualifier for NCAA Championships
• O’Connell Center, Gainesville, Florida
• Day 1 results
• What qualified last year

The first day of the University of Florida-hosted Last Chance Meet saw the home team rack up several new qualifiers. Taking advantage of their home pool, the Gators earned no-fewer-than 4 new locked-in qualifiers for NCAAs, with several others on the bubble.

Swimmers can swim an event in prelims and finals of a last chance meet, along with in one time trial. See all of the last chance meets here.

• Florida’s Savanna Faulconer swam 4:41.08 in the 500 free, which is a 3-second improvement on her previous season-best. It took only a 4:42.58 to qualify for NCAAs last season, and that time jumps Faulconer from 67th in the country to 29th. With all major conferences done with the 500 free, that locks her in for an NCAA invite. Texas A&M’s Karling Hemstreet swam a 4:41.60 in prelims and a 4:42.56 in finals. That prelims swim pushes her to 32nd in the country, and she should be safe for an invite as well.
• Florida freshman Kelly Fertel swam a 1:57.60 in the women’s 200 IM. That’s three-tenths clear of what qualified last year, and jumps her from 66th to 35th nationally. That should leave her on the right side of the bubble.
• Florida sophomore Alex Lebed swam a 1:43.80 in the 200 IM, which jumps him from 28th and probably out with the Pac-12 and ACC Championships left to go, all the way to 14th and probably good on qualification.
• FGCU’s Katie Latham tried to improve her standing in the 50 free, but wound up with only a 22.49 – short of her previous season-best. She’s ranked 52nd nationally, which is on the bubble in the 50 free where many highly-ranked swimmers don’t enter the race at NCAAs.
• Florida’s Enzo Martinez Scarpe improved his odds in the 50 free with a 19.50 in prelims. That ranks him 22nd nationally with ACCs and Pac-12s left to swim. 30 were invited last year, cut off at a 19.53.
• Jack Blyzinskyj swam a 46.53 in a 100 back time trial and Bayley Main swam 46.65. Both are slightly slower than what was invited last season, and also slightly slower than their previous season-bests, which are on the bubble. Both swimmer will get prelims and finals swims later in the meet to try and improve their standing.
• Brennan Balogh locked up his invite with a 1:40.72 in a 200 back time trial. That’s a season-best for him by a second and a half, and he now ranks 9th nationally. 1:41.92 was invited last year.
• Florida senior Alyssa Yambor-Maul is Indy-bound as well after a 1:55.68 in a 200 fly time trial. Her previous season best was a 1:57.34 that ranked her 49th nationally. With Big 12s and Pac 12s yet to swim, that was almost definitely going to be out; she now jumps all the way to 18th and is a lock for NCAAs.